2025-08-17 17:01:59
I use a standing desk at home, and I miss it when I travel because my body aches from sitting so long. This portable sit-stand laptop desk made by Moft weighs just a hair over two pounds and folds to a 0.5-inch thick rectangle that easily fits into my computer bag. Unfolded, it lifts my laptop 9.75 inches above the table, and is surprisingly stable. The fiberglass and PU leather construction feels premium and durable. Recommended for anyone who spends long hours on their laptop away from home. — MF
Check out the website Wplace. It’s a zany collaborative futuristic art project happening around the world, mostly created by young people. Like its predecessor r/place, Wplace lets people paint a single pixel at a time. But everyone layers the art over Google maps and most folks start with painting over their neighborhood. And like r/place, you can repaint over other art. So in order to make any kind of a picture large requires an incredible amount of coordination and collaboration with others – and any art produced must be fiercely maintained in order to remain. The ambience is true folk art – the lowest common denominator of anime characters, memes, sports brands, political flags, logos, graffiti, and creative patterns. Surprisingly the parts of the globe most densely painted in its first month are not silicon valley but Brazil and Germany. And you may have trouble getting a chance to paint pixels because its servers are overwhelmed. This weird global emergent collab happening feels like a hint of art from the future. — KK
The Daily Grail front page is my news source for all things weird and fringe science—from papers on consciousness studies and paranormal research to new discoveries in neuroscience, quantum physics, and strange archaeological finds. Most briefs come from mainstream, credible outlets, but the curation makes me feel like a kid reading Weekly World News in the checkout line or living inside an episode of The X-Files. Its editorial approach is described as maintaining an appropriate level of skepticism while remaining open to paradigm-shifting ideas. I check it religiously via my Feedly, but daily news items are also posted to Bluesky if you prefer to follow there. — CD
Midjourney TV is a continuous stream of AI-generated short video art, created by the user community with Midjourney’s recently launched video model. The stream is a hypnotic, mind-expanding glimpse into how humans are using creative AI—and into the collective imagination. I’ve been a Midjourney user since day one and still prefer it for creating imagery from dreams and psychedelic therapy visions. — CD
Because I’ve published a lot of books, both by mainstream publishers and in self-published bestsellers, I frequently get asked for advice by wannabe authors. So I have written up Everything I Know About Publishing and Self-Publishing into a blog post and also packaged in a tidy free 16-page PDF. I end with a flow-chart to navigate through the expanding variety of publishing options available today. — KK
StoryTerra is a interactive map that links to over 120,000 books, movies, TV shows, and games with their real-world locations and time periods. You can slide through centuries on the timeline, zoom into cities on the map, and discover what stories took place when and where. — MF
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Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.
2025-08-10 17:02:19
I'm not here to shame anyone for scrolling through TikTok. I suggest you give WikiTok a try one night instead. It presents random Wikipedia articles in that familiar endless-scroll format we're addicted to, but replaces dance trends with images of extinct megafauna, weird inventions, and artists I’d never heard of. A recent favorite: Indonesia once issued a postage stamp featuring a fragment of a fossilized Homo erectus skull — the kind of random delight that makes this site worth visiting. — MF
Sometimes a single use tool is the only tool that will work. An endoscope is a long coil of stiff, but not too stiff, wire with a tineeweenie camera and LED light at the end. You snake the wire/camera into crevices, down pipes, behind cabinets, inside engines to find out stuff. There’s usually no other way to see deep inside. Not too long ago endoscopes were extremely expensive, but I bought mine for $21. The business end is about 8mm or a 1/4” thick and the other end of the 5 meter (16ft) wire connects to my phone, which serves as the screen, camera and power source. It comes with a clip-on hook or magnet for retrieving tiny objects. I downloaded its app and this Ennovor Endoscope worked instantly. (Lots of generic versions available.) I used mine to troubleshoot a blocked dishwasher-garbage disposal line. For $21 it was worth stashing it in a drawer for another just-in-case use. — KK
This historical tech tree is now my favorite way to explore history—a searchable timeline of discoveries, inventions, and tools spanning the ages. You can search by field, year, person, or by the name of the “tech”—which, by this website’s definition, is “a piece of knowledge (an idea) that is created intentionally by humans for a practical purpose (not for its own sake) and is implemented in some kind of physical substrate.” Each tech links to a Wiki page, or branches to other techs that it either built upon or led to. You never know where you'll end up—I just learned all about water clocks. I love this navigable visualization of human innovation, and it's inspiring to imagine what lies ahead of us. — CD
I make espressos at least three times a day. The machine, grinder, and knock box are on a wood kitchen counter, and it's getting stained from drips and spills. This Amoami 12"x19" rubber mat keeps my coffee corner clean and tidy. The absorbent material quickly soaks up any spills without letting moisture seep through to the counter. It's low-maintenance — a quick wipe cleans it up. — MF
We switched from a pouring spout for our cooking oil to this dark glass bottle dispenser, which provides more accurate portions and helps preserve the oil’s freshness. The dispenser delivers a precise 1/4 teaspoon, or you can switch to spray mode to lightly coat your pans. I like to use the sprayer when cooking tortillas, because the fine mist of oil makes them crispy. — CD
If you are lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe’s grocery store, my three favorite desserts from there are their Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, their Almond Ring Danish, and their French Apple Tart (seasonal). All three are addictively delicious, and I would rank them better than their equivalents anywhere in the world at any price. — KK
What would you put on a 5”x5” quartz plate with 25,878,012,676 pixels? Full text of your 5,000 favorite novels? Archive of your top 10,000 photos? Ultra-res map of your city with every shrub on every street? We are Gotham Silicon, a new chip fab in NYC. We can make this for you.
Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
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Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.
2025-08-03 17:01:08
For lightweight family-rated summer entertainment, try K-Pop Demon Hunters. It is an animated musical fairytale in the manner of Shrek or Frozen, but with Korean-American characteristics. In this fantasy, the battle is over fans, who are the scarce resource. Catchy K-pop songs score the fast action, which also delivers an emotional payoff. The film streams on Netflix, and is getting a lot of attention. It’s the meme source for this summer. — KK
I got this Workpro Home Tool Kit as a gift for a relative moving into his first apartment. We used it to assemble flat-pack furniture, mount a TV, and install blackout curtains. The 12V cordless drill/driver, bits, wrench, pliers, level, utility knife, hammer, and tape measure handled everything we encountered. I’d add a socket set to round it out, but the kit contains all the essential tools a first-time apartment dweller needs. Everything stores in the included tool bag. — MF
This chart, “A Guide from Pain to Presence”, explores how human expression changes when it is a reaction to past loss, future fear, or present discomfort. It also offers alternative expressions that stem from wholeness and embodiment. For example, personal boundaries may become forms of control or avoidance when motivated by past loss or fear of uncertainty, but when rooted in wholeness, boundaries express a healthy authority based on inner clarity. The language can be a bit jargon-heavy, but I find the framework helpful for shifting from old, anxious patterns to more intentional and grounded action. — CD
My favorite current New Yorker cartoonist is Roz Chast. I love her whimsy, childlike drawing, inventiveness, and silly sweet humor. But she creates more than cartoons. On her Instagram page, she posts weird painted eggs she makes, her marvelous embroidered dreams, her arrangements of Japanese matchboxes, her block prints, her photographs of New York shops at night, and more. It’s the most refreshing definition of being creative. I get inspired every visit. — KK
My old bathroom scale was giving inconsistent measurements, so it was time to get a new one. I wanted something inexpensive, highly rated, with an easy-to-read LED display, and that could sync with my Apple Health app. The Fitindex Smart Scale checked all the boxes. The scale measures up to 400 lbs in 0.2 lb increments and runs on included AAA batteries. — MF
The Analog Life: 50 Ways to Unplug and Feel Human Again offers a great list of practical ways to go old-school and become less screen-centric. I love the advice to use devices that do one thing well, such as an e-reader, record player, or kitchen timer. My crystal radio—tuned to one station and one station only—is one of my favorite and most nostalgia-inducing possessions. All these tips help to reclaim a more intentional, analog way of living—like allowing days to go unaccounted for and enjoying experiences without feeling the need to document them. — CD
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
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Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.
2025-07-27 17:01:58
The Big Book of Secret Hiding Places, published in 1987, is an illustrated guide to concealing things in clever hiding places. It covers methods for concealing items in buildings, vehicles, and on the body. Even if you don’t need to hide anything (or smuggle it across a border), it makes for fascinating reading. — MF
A new podcast I am finding value in is Core Memory by Ashlee Vance. Vance sniffs around Silicon Valley talking to the crazy ones on the bleeding edge of tech, the mavericks with outlandish ideas, and the fast-talking renegades trying to do the impossible, plus the usual mix of over-confident nerds with grandiose visions. I like it because it keeps me on my toes. — KK
The Literature-Map is a data-art tool that helps you discover new authors. Just type in a writer you love, and it generates a visual map of related authors based on readers’ tastes—writers clustered together have a shared fanbase. It’s a fun way to expand your literary universe. — CD
I’ve been really enjoying an obscure book about the discovery/invention of electricity. I was reading it partly because I think there is an analogy to the discovery/invention of AI, in that the smartest people alive and working on it (like Newton) were totally wrong about what it was. Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field recounts the biographical story of the two main investigators and how they kept changing their ideas to meet new evidence. Their insights made me believe that Maxwell was more of a leapfrogging genius than Einstein, a not uncommon view among many physicists. Electromagnetic fields are so strange and counterintuitive, that by following these pioneers’ experiments and explanations, I came away thinking I understand electricity even less than I did when I started. I mean in the late 1800s they figured out the electrical energy does not flow inside a wire as everyone today thinks it does. Rather the energy is carried along outside by waves in the field that surrounds the wire. (I think we are equally misunderstanding intelligence of all types.) In the book there is exciting science, colorfully eccentric characters, and the lessons of widening one’s imagination to see what has not been seen before. — KK
If you’re interested in weekly suggestions for making your workplace more inclusive, Karen Catlin’s Better Allies newsletter delivers five actionable ideas in each issue. Topics range from accessibility and addressing bias, to tips on fostering allyship. It’s concise, clear, and never pushy or preachy—a great resource for anyone looking to build more inclusive habits at work. — CD
Our freezer doesn’t make ice, so I use ice cube trays instead. The ones I have make 2-inch cubes (a little over 4 ounces), which is perfect for keeping cocktails cold for a long time. They’re made from flexible silicone and come with a lid. Some people even use them for baking. Rycore sells the trays as a 2-pack for $21. — MF
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Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.
2025-07-20 17:01:00
An AI tool I’m most excited about right now is MyLens AI, which takes your pasted text, webpages, PDFs, spreadsheets, and even YouTube videos and instantly turns them into interactive visuals — like mind maps, flowcharts, and timelines. With just one click, you can expand, edit, explore connections, or add more — deepening your diagrams and charts. It’s really useful for visualizing dense information and untangling complicated concepts. I signed up for the paid version right away, so I can’t really speak to what the free tier offers, but I do know there is one. — CD
I do most of my reading on a Kindle at night, which has prevented me from reading paper books, which I have become nostalgic for. I bought this inexpensive Glocusent bookmark-style light, which has three color temperatures (I use amber), a tilt-swivel light, and five brightness levels. It's small and unobtrusive, and the USB-C rechargeable battery lasts weeks of nightly reading. — MF
I have not used this technique myself to stop a dog attacking another person or, more likely, another dog. It is basically a way to chokehold the attacking dog with its collar or leash. So I can’t vouch for the technique on this American Standard Dog Training channel, but it seems reasonable to me and is what I would try if I encountered this situation. Skip to minute 6:20 to see the methods. — KK
Recently, I stayed with a friend and expat in London, and he introduced me to his favorite music station—LA-based KCRW’s Eclectic24. I was surprised to travel so far only to discover something local to bring back home, but it truly deserves to be a worldwide treasure. Every song is hand-curated by real radio DJs—not algorithms—effortlessly blending indie, rock, electronic, hip-hop, soul, classics, and global beats into a pure, uninterrupted, 24-hour listening experience. You can stream for free on their website, but the best way to listen is through the app (iOS, Android), where you can see the playlist in real time and save your favorite tracks to your personal Spotify or Apple Music playlist. — CD
Bike touring, or bikepacking, is a great way to travel. But getting your bike to and from the destination is not trivial. Most airlines consider a tightly packed boxed bicycle as checked luggage, going at checked luggage rates. The key is a good bike box. You can get a good box for bicycles at a bike store for free because all their new bikes are shipped in these boxes. There are bike shops everywhere in the world, which is good for finding a box on your way back. You can also ship bikes within the US via UPS; the box will fit under their max dimensions. — KK
I constantly switch between iMessage, Google Chat, Instagram DMs, Slack, Signal, and WhatsApp to send messages to friends and colleagues. Sometimes I miss important messages because I forget which platform a specific person or group prefers to use, leading me to check the wrong apps or overlook notifications from the right ones. I recently started using Beeper, a desktop and phone app that combines all of these platforms and more into a single messaging environment. It’s free to use for up to 6 platforms; if you need more, it’s $10 a month. — MF
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.
2025-07-13 17:01:34
Rental car companies love to shake you down with their toll programs—- either pay an absurd daily fee (like $25/day!) for their toll service or risk getting slammed with massive processing fees if you hit a toll booth. But here's a money-saving move: register your rental car's license plate on The Toll Roads website before driving. I snap a photo of the plate and VIN (enter it here to get the car’s year, make, and model) at pickup and add it to my FasTrak account right there in the parking lot—takes 2 minutes. Set the start/end dates for your rental period and you're good to go. — MF
Getting legal advice from a chat AI is an okay way to start, but you’ll need something more trustworthy to complete a legal deal. For 50 years I (and many others!) have relied on Nolo Press for legal guidance. Nolo offers fantastic guidebooks to common legal needs — from speeding tickets, to small claims court, to bankruptcy and divorce. In some cases they offer online forms and software to get what you need. I’ve used Nolo to create my own LLCs, partnerships and other legal entities. I also used their guide to change my name legally. They are very clear and trustworthy and much cheaper than a lawyer. — KK
This essay on Kevin Kelly by Brie Wolfson, titled “Flounder Mode,” is my favorite profile of Kevin Kelly I’ve ever read. It perfectly matches my own experience of knowing him — a creator who is endlessly curious, prolifically generative, laid-back, kind, and genuinely happy. Equally compelling are Brie’s honest reflections about her career path, which invite me, as a reader, to reflect more deeply on my own choices and dreams. More than ever, I feel inspired to align my creative habits and decisions with what truly interests me. I recommend this to anyone interested in redefining for themselves the meaning of “greatness,” “ambition,” and “outcomes.” — CD
This simple headphone stand is one of those "why didn't I get this sooner?" purchases. It keeps my AirPod Max headphones always within reach and has a weighted base to prevent tipping. I went with the metal version over plastic for better durability. A small upgrade that makes my workspace feel more organized. — MF
Bullshit Remover is a fun tool to play with. Paste any block of text into the box and it will remove the “crap” and give you back the truth behind all the words. — CD
Time for some more quotable quotes:
The patient inherit everything the impatient leave behind. — Shane Parish
Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could. — Rudiger Dornbusch
I wouldn’t have seen it, if I didn’t believe it. — Marshall McLuhan
There are two kinds of people in the world… and who is not both of them? — James Richardson
Everything that moves will be autonomous — Jensen Hwang
Knowing what you’re doing is way overrated. — Pope.L
A cartoonist is someone who has to draw the same thing day after day without repeating himself. — Charles M. Schulz
You have to be unreasonable to see the world that doesn’t yet exist. — Will Guidara
If I knew where songs came from, I’d go there more often. — Leonard Cohen
I offer these as small mind-tickles to remind you of what you already know, but have forgotten. — KK
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.